The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report, which will be released this week, may remove the last doubts about the Fed's interest rate cut as early as September - if job growth remains weak, writes Barron's. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell called the current labor market "curious" a week and a half ago , with slow job growth and few layoffs at the same time. This is keeping unemployment low by historical standards.

A strong second-quarter corporate earnings season in the U.S. is coming to an end, with Yahoo Finance calculating that about 98% of companies in the S&P 500 index have released earnings data. This week Wall Street will focus on the financial reports of two technology corporations, Barron's announces. Quotes of the company-developer of cloud software Salesforce from the beginning of 2025 collapsed by more than 20% - investors are concerned that with the development of artificial intelligence technologies may fall traditionally high margins of corporate software. In contrast, shares of AI chip vendor Broadcom have jumped nearly 30% this year.

On Monday, September 1, U.S. equity and fixed income markets are closed in observance of Labor Day.

On Tuesday, September 2, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) will release its business activity index (PMI) for the U.S. manufacturing sector for August. The consensus forecast is 48.9 points - about one point higher than in July.

Last quarter's financial results will be disclosed by NIO and Zscaler.

On Wednesday, September 3, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Economists on average forecast a figure of 7.34 million job openings at the end of July - 110,000 fewer than a month earlier.

The Fed will publish another Beige Book, the sixth of eight reports this year with information on current economic conditions in the world's leading economy from the nation's 12 regional reserve banks.

Figma will report earnings for the quarter for the first time since going public. Salesforce, C3.ai, Campbell Soup, Dollar Tree, GitLab, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Macy's will also report their results.

On Thursday, September 4, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) will release the U.S. private sector employment report for August. It is expected to increase by 83 thousand jobs - 21 thousand less than in July.

ISM will release the August business activity index (PMI) for the service sector. The consensus is 50.9 points, slightly above July's reading.

Broadcom, Copart, DocuSign and Lululemon Athletica will disclose quarterly results.

On Friday, September 5, BLS will release statistics on the U.S. labor market for August. Wall Street forecasts a 75,000 increase in non-farm payrolls - 2,000 more than in July - as well as a rise in unemployment - from 4.2% to 4.3%. Powell's speech in Jackson Hole in late August shifted the Fed's focus from containing inflation to supporting the labor market. Another weak employment report almost guarantees an interest rate cut in mid-September, according to Barron's.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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